Thermal barrier products comprising fibrous batts may be used in home furnishings such as couches, mattresses, upholstery, draperies, and the like; protective clothing; building construction; vehicle or airplane seating; insulation; or any other industrial or commercial application for the purpose of fire abatement. In a home furnishings application, for example, a thermal barrier layer comprising a fibrous batt may encase one or more flammable products. Most mattresses and furniture, for example, are filled with polyurethane foam, which is highly flammable. Therefore, a thermal barrier layer may be disposed directly below the ticking provided across the seating surfaces and the borders of a mattress, thereby encasing the subassembly that includes layers of polyurethane foam. Thus, the thermal barrier layer is a fire retardant product that resists burn through due to exposure to an open flame, and also resists thermal transfer to reduce melting and prevent ignition of the more flammable products in the subassembly.
To ensure compliance with state and/or federal flammability standards for industrial and residential furnishings, open flame testing has conventionally been conducted on furniture and bedding as a composite. For example, the state of California has issued Technical Bulletin 603 (TB603), which is a flammability test standard for residential mattresses comprising open flame testing on a foundation and mattress assembly. This approach has inherent drawbacks in that such testing is costly and does not allow for the evaluation of the thermal properties of individual thermal barrier products. Therefore, a need exists for apparatus and methods to test and evaluate the open flame resistance and thermal transfer resistance of thermal barrier products without the cost and complexity of composite open flame testing.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.